The Indian rupee ended flat on Thursday, bucking declines in most regional peers, as likely central bank intervention and inflows related to an equity index rebalancing helped ?cushion the impact from a US interest rate hike. The rupee closed at 95.93 against the dollar, barely changed from Wednesday's close at 95.9550. While the rupee had slipped past the 96-per-dollar mark in early trading, it recouped losses following market intervention and inflows likely linked to the rebalancing of ?a global equity index. Asian currencies mostly declined between 0.1% and 0.6% after the Federal Reserve raised rates and reaffirmed its commitment to curbing inflation, lifting short-dated U.S. yields to their highest level in over two years. The dollar index was anchored above the 100 mark, ?after ?rising nearly 0.7% in the previous session. Brent crude was down about 1% at $104.8 as reports of additional Saudi crude cargoes through Oman eased supply concerns, even as worries over the Middle ?East conflict lingered. Meanwhile, traders said that the Reserve Bank of India also likely conducted dollar-rupee sell/buy swaps to drain excess rupee liquidity from the banking system. ?The central bank's open market debt sale, conducted for the same purpose, also absorbed cash from the banking system equivalent to nearly 0.2% of total deposits on Thursday. Sterling was little changed on Thursday after the Federal Reserve policy meeting with investors awaiting the Bank of England rate decision later in the session. The greenback climbed to a seven - week high after the Federal Reserve raised rates and ?reaffirmed its commitment to curbing inflation, though it later eased as energy prices extended their fall. The Bank of England looks set to keep interest rates steady and slow the pace at which it offloads the government bonds it bought between 2009 and 2021. The British currency hasn’t shown much resilience to the dollar’s advance in the last few sessions, with the euro slightly up against the pound possibly on some positioning ahead of the BoE meeting. Japan will continue to strive towards maintaining orderly yen moves through close communication with the United States, its top government spokesperson said on Thursday in the wake of the yen's renewed ?slide. The US Federal Reserves interest rate hike on Wednesday triggered a broad dollar rise. The yen fell to around 155.50 in Asia on Thursday, off a seven-month high of 152.89 hit earlier this month on bets of speedier Bank of Japan rate hikes. Japan and the United States launched a rare joint yen-buying intervention on July 31 and vowed to take further action if needed to shore up the currency, ?a ?move that pushed the yen well off a 40-year low near 164 hit earlier in July. Gold climbed more than 1% on Thursday as a softer dollar and easing oil prices lent ?support, while investors assessed the Federal Reserve's latest rate hike and prospects for further policy tightening. Spot gold was up 1.1% at $4,308.57 per ounce, as of 1022 GMT, after hitting a near-six-week low on Wednesday. U.S. gold futures for December delivery were down 0.9% to $4,348.10. Spot silver rose 1.5% to $63.91 per ounce, platinum gained 1.2% to $1,772.26 and palladium climbed 1.4% to $1,287.17. www.eforexinidia.com......